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Suurpelto

Espoo's Opinmäki learning centre wins international award for improving life quality of citizens

The activities of the learning centre promote well-being and community spirit of people of all ages and with different cultural backgrounds. That's why the International Association of Educating Cities has decided to award Opinmäki for its good practices.

Suurpelto is a unique park city in Espoo

The goal is to offer everybody a home that best suits their current situation in life. Besides the traditional owner-occupied flats, high-quality rented flats and right-of-occupancy flats will be constructed in Suurpelto area.

A 3D video shows the urban structure of the new area of the city of Espoo: Suurpelto

Suurpelto in brief

Suurpelto is a unique park city in the middle of Espoo with great connections to other parts of Espoo, Helsinki, and the airport. At the moment, there are approximately 2,200 inhabitants living in Suurpelto and estimated to grow to 11,000 by 2050. Suurpelto is being built to an architecturally coherent whole and in line with sustainable development values. The area’s construction will continue until 2020.

Commercial, cultural and recreational services are being built in the area. A central part of the area are new innovative “pop up” spaces, which are built as part of the residential buildings. This enables different activities for the residents of the area and several opportunities for entrepreneurs.

At the moment, the City of Espoo is one of the biggest employers in the area with 3 day cares, Espoo International School, primary school Päiväkehrä, a library and other new innovative cultural activities. There are also many private employers in the area. Some 3,000 people are currently employed in Suurpelto, estimated to grow to 15,000 by 2050.

The centre of Suurpelto is called Lukutori – a town square designed for events and as a meeting place for residents. A shopping centre is planned near the town square. The shopping centre will be built in several phases, the first of which is estimated to be completed by 2017.

A wide range of recreational services for kids, adults and senior citizens are available in Suurpelto. Outdoor activities such as skiing, orienteering and hiking can be done in the nearby Espoo Central Park. Suurpelto inhabitants are active and this is being supported by offering them the chance to participate in different projects, to support events and current affairs.

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Suurpelto development

Suurpelto is currently being developed and new services are being employed together with local operators and inhabitants. The area is being developed with closeness to nature, activity lifestyle and ecological values in mind.

Commercial services are also being developed according to local values and vision. Supporting entrepreneurship and activity in the area are important development areas.

New commercial premises will be completed in 2016 and altogether construction projects of 1,000,000 square metres of floor area will be completed by 2030.

Recently completed Opinmäki campus is a great example of the future of public building projects. The goal was to make the campus an active service centre and meeting place even at nights and on weekends.

Most important development project

Suurpelto shopping centre

The Suurpelto shopping centre and new commercial services on the main street will be a significant part of Suurpelto’s final cityscape. The total development are is approximately 15,000 sqm and the first phase of construction is to be completed in 2017.

Success story: Learning Centre in Suurpelto

"Suurpelto has a lot of potential as an area, as it is constantly developing and growing fast."

Opinmäki Learning centre, located in Suurpelto, provides a wide variety of services to Suurpelto citizens of all ages. The centre opened its doors in autumn 2015 and was the largest building project in the area so far. The centre consists of both international and Finnish schools, day care, sports centre and a modern library that is also referred to as an active learning environment. Suurpelto is internationally oriented and teaching in English in comprehensive schools in the City of Espoo is concerted to the international school in Opinmäki. Students studying in the school represent 48 different nationalities. Opinmäki provides great opportunities specifically for arranging various kinds of events. For instance, futsal world cup qualification rounds were arranged in Opinmäki sports centre in autumn 2015, which filled all the 500 seats of the sports centre.

Suurpelto has also a very active community and inhabitants are interested in the development of the area. Suurpelto residents are interested in sports, local food, ecological lifestyle and value innovative and creative living environment. For this reason specifically, I believe that Suurpelto is an excellent environment for companies to test and develop the functionality of different ideas and innovations.

There are good connections to Suurpelto, especially from Helsinki. The extended metro line from Ruoholahti via Lauttasaari to Espoo, which opens in autumn 2016, will also improve public transport connections to Suurpelto in the near future.

There are currently approximately 2,200 inhabitants living in Suurpelto area. As the area is growing, the goal is to have 11,000 inhabitants by 2025.”

Victoria Mäkimartti, Service Coordinator at Opinmäki Learning Centre in Suurpelto